The University of Edinburgh will be joining forces with Imperial College London and Harvard Medical School to launch an NHS Digital Academy. The virtual organisation will aim to train 300 IT leaders for the health services over the next three years.

It will equip healthcare professionals with the skills to use new technologies to improve the patient experience, and deliver service efficiencies. Experts are also developing 12-month, part-time training programmes for NHS staff, covering topics including leadership and transformational change, public attitudes to the sharing of data, and responding to user needs.

The courses will mainly be delivered online, but will also include a residential component and a workplace project.

Professor Aziz Sheikh, Co-Director of the NHS Digital Academy and Director of the University of Edinburgh’s Usher institute, said:

“Developments in digital capabilities and data science are transforming many facets of our lives. It is crucial that these developments are now also harnessed to improve health care processes and patient experiences.”

Plans to establish an NHS Digital Academy were announced by Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt during a speech in 2016. Edinburgh University, along with Imperial College and Harvard Medical School, have been selected to lead its development after a competitive tender process.